Email security systems leave organizations vulnerable

Email and data security company Mimecast has released the results of its latest Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA) which finds that mail security systems inaccurately deemed nearly 17,000 dangerous files 'safe' this quarter.

That represents a 25 percent increase over the previous quarter. Dangerous file types like jsp, .exe, .dll and .src are rarely emailed for legitimate purposes and can be used launch a cyberattack.

The report also finds 21,183,014 spam emails, 17,403 malware attachments, 42,350 impersonation attacks and 205,363 malicious URLS, all missed by security providers and delivered to users' inboxes. This latest report concludes that an aggregate 12 percent of all secured and filtered email traffic was unwanted emails and thus were false negatives.

"Mimecast has seen an increase in security efficacy versus legacy vendors along with detailed information on the proliferation of threats of all types. The ESRA provides deep insights for our customers on the types of attacks threatening their business," says Lindsay Jack, security service director at Mimecast. "Attacks we are seeing include key executives being targeted with cloud storage services exploits, impersonation attacks targeting legal, finance and administrative assistance as well as social engineering attacks against the C-suite. Mimecast helps organizations understand how they compare with other organizations in their geography or industry vertical. Additionally, these reports provide insights on the rise of new types of malware and key trends in malicious email campaigns."